Desert Defender To Fade Into Sunset

With War Over, Paper Ends Run

The newspaper that helped keep airmen and pilots stationed in the Saudi desert informed about goings on around the service ceased publication Monday after an eight-month existence.

The Desert Defender, launched in August at Tactical Air Command headquarters, ended its publication life with a 16-page commemorative issue reflecting Air Force achievements during the Gulf War.

FOR THE RECORD - Published correction ran Wednesday, May 1, 1991. A caption under a photo on the front page of Tuesday's Local section incorrectly spelled the names of the two people in the picture. Shown looking over the final issue of the Air Force's ``Desert Defender'' newspaper were Lt. Col. O. Ernest Stepp and Staff Sgt. Robert L. Pfenning Jr.

``It's the same feeling when your kids leave home: you're glad to be rid of them, but you're sad at the same time,'' said Master Sgt. John Banusiewicz, who has been the paper's managing editor since it started.

Working out of a conference room converted into a makeshift newsroom at the Langley Air Force Base headquarters, Banusiewicz assembled a team of airmen to design the paper, lay out its pages and edit the news copy that flowed in from stateside bases and airmen writing about the troops in the Middle East.

Despite the continued presence of Air Force troops in that region, the decision to halt publication was driven by reduced ability of the staff to get information from the remaining airmen.

``It's not that there aren't stories over there,'' Banusiewicz said. ``A lot of it had to do with the major units came back and a lot of public affairs people came back with them. Frankly, our sources were drying up.''

Still, the decision to stop publishing what had become the only officially authorized newspaper of the Central Command air arm had been made at the same time the paper was launched. It would eventually cease, Banusiewicz said, when there were fewer Air Force troops in Saudi Arabia to send it to.

``That's been the attitude all along,'' he said. ``We were all hoping that the day would come along when we didn't have to do it anymore.''

The paper ceased its normal weekly publication three weeks ago, and its staff has been putting the special edition together since.

The commemorative issue, with more than 30 photographs, was culled from about 6,000 color slides taken during the course of operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and found their way to the Desert Defender archives - a few boxes in a closet next to the conference room.

For the final edition, the staff increased the press run to 338,000 copies and will send them to bases throughout the Air Force. The usual circulation was 30,000, sent mostly to the troops in Saudi Arabia.

On Monday, Senior Airman Karina Jennings was typing 2,200 addresses into one of two personal computers the staff used to put the paper out. The addresses will be printed out on labels to make shipping the last edition easier. Jennings expects to go back to her usual duty assignment at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming at the end of the week.

Left to file the 6,000 slides and turn the newsroom back into a conference room will be the only other remaining member of the staff, Staff Sgt. Robert Pfenning, who isn't expected back at Norton Air Force Base, Calif., until June 1.

``I think it'll take two weeks. Maybe more. I don't know,'' said Pfenning, who was watching the final Desert Defender press run Monday at the Daily Press, where the paper is printed.

Pfenning will be alone in his task of cleaning up. On Tuesday, Banusiewicz is undergoing an operation for an ulcer and is expecting to be convalescing for the next few weeks.

While he said the editor's job was at times stressful, the stomach ailment was not caused by his work alone.

``I've been working on that for a long time,'' Banusiewicz said of the ulcer with a grim chuckle. ``It's just kind of a coincidence it worked out this way.''